


I Am Become a Name (or Telemachus's Retort)

by Aeolian



Category: Captain America (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Missing Scene, Set before All-New Captain America #1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 17:55:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2661113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeolian/pseuds/Aeolian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Look, Sam knows he was born sixty years too late to make history. Like everyone else from Harlem during the '70s, he's read Alex Haley's biography on Isaiah Bradley cover to cover, forwards and backwards. Sam's not making any waves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Am Become a Name (or Telemachus's Retort)

Look, Sam knows he was born sixty years too late to make history. Like everyone else from Harlem during the '70s, he's read Alex Haley's biography on Isaiah Bradley cover to cover, forwards and backwards. Even had the privilege of meeting the man once. Sam's not making any waves.

Not that you could tell by watching the news. The honeymoon phrase seemed to have ended right when the X-Men had descended upon Stark Tower and wrought havoc. (Moral inversion beams--Steve's probably said weirder things with a straight face to the press, but Sam wouldn't know. _Magic_.) Nowadays, the talking heads can't seem to stop agreeing on how Sam can't measure up to Steve. The only discussions seem to revolve around the degree of his disgrace. Funny how none of them had a problem with how Barnes represented the stars and stripes, or hey, that one time Barton did.

"Nomad to base. Got visuals on something big."

The team had been tipped off to HYDRA activity in Ecuador a few days ago. The Rogers kid had aggressively volunteered to infiltrate the secret base they had to be operating out of, probably in an attempt to 1) provoke Sam somehow and 2) prove to his father that he was better suited to the Captain America name than Sam. What can Sam say? The kid sure knew how to hit two birds with one stone. Probably another form of Phroxian superiority or something.

Actually, Sam should probably stop antagonizing the kid. They would be working together for the conceivable future, and considering Ian knew about Sam's thing with Jet, the kid is acting positively civil. And, come to think of it, Sam should probably thinking of him as a kid, considering that Jet is his sister. How does Dimension Z aging work anyway?

"Copy that. Base to Nomad. What kind of big?"

Ian's tone is as snide as he's ever heard it. "I'll put it this way--if you don't come sooner, there might not be a later."

Sam swallows his sigh. Steve had already left for his trip to the Catskills. If he wants to repair his relationship with Ian, he has to do it himself. Sam practically raised Sarah and Gideon himself--he can handle one infuriating, punk-ass know-it-all. He rolls his shoulders, where the weight is already making itself known.

The thing few people know is, the vibranium shield and wingpack are surprisingly light. It's the name that weighs so damn much. Everywhere Sam's been--Brazil, Wakanda, Singapore, the Antarctic--they all recognize the Captain America name. (Well, maybe not in Antarctica. Not many people, even in the Savage Lands.) And unlike Stark's updates on his wings, the name has only grown heavier with time. He can't act like the Falcon anymore, brash and flashy. He has become a part of the Captain America myth.

Steve's always held the only honest scales and Sam? Sam's greatest fear is that he'll be found wanting.

\---

Sarah bought her house roughly around the same time Sam became the Falcon. Sam had moved furniture and painted Jody's future room under Sarah's critical eye. Two months later, at the baby shower, Sam tilted his head at the scattering of newspaper clippings above the crib, a few taped down before the pastel paint (Reverie Pink, eggshell, VOC-free) had even dried.

"I didn't do that bad a job, did I?" he asked, jokingly, "You planning on covering all of my hard work?"

"Sam," said Sarah, mock seriously, "I'm planning on covering the whole _house_ with your hard work."

Jody is graduating elementary school next month (on one hand, _graduating_ elementary school. How is that even a thing? On the other, graduation _elementary school_. When did they become so old?), and the neatly-tiled articles, some fading and yellow, others crisp printouts, still only covered the same bedroom wall and part of the ones adjacent. All of them had his devilishly handsome mug. Turns out Sarah wasn't joking.

"Why don't you print out the Avenger articles? I'm in all of those," said Sam during his last visit, "You might check off your wallpapering project faster."

Sarah rolled her eyes, and turned her laptop screen so Sam could see. It was an article on their latest escapade in Genosha. The accompanying photo was old, with Tony and Carol front and center, Steve and Thor looming larger than life behind them. Sam was in the frame, but you had to know where to look to find him.

"I don't mind slow," said Sarah.

\---

The jungle is so thick that what little light trickles down to the understory is practically cathedral. Sam is struck by the sudden sense memory of weathered pews under his hand, the scratchy collar of his Sunday suit, and the deep, rolling baritone of his father's voice. _To the first son he gave five talents, the second two talents, and the third one talent._

The armor's built-in comm crackles into life.

"Sam, you there?" It's Steve's voice, just with the age settings cranked up to seventy.

"Sure, Cap, go ahead," says Sam. Redwing chirps a greeting. "Redwing says hi too."

"Hi, Redwing, and don't call me that."

Sam can _hear_ the Dad scowl. All right, all right, Mr. Not-Captain. "Sorry. What's up?"

"Ian sent me the coordinates. I hope you don't mind me tagging along?"

 _In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God._ In his youth, Sam had rebelled against God and his father. In his manhood, he walks among gods and fights beside his heroes.

"Yeah, sure. Redwing could use the company."

"You might want _Redwing_ to keep a sharp eye out, then. If my gut's right, Hydra's not going to have anything above ground."

Falling back into the Cap and Falcon routine is easy enough that he can give Steve half his attention, Redwing another half, and still mull on his new job position. (What? That college degree was all the work of the Cosmic Cube. He's got no math left in his brain thanks to Wanda.)

What was the rest of that parable? The first two invested their talents, gave back their father double the value of his money, and were rewarded. The third did nothing with his one talent, and futzed off to that space station he thinks no one knows about.

Sam went into this with clear eyes. He knows how his career with the Avengers will end; he was prepared for it when he white-knuckled a bomb and shot full throttle towards the sun. Eight million beautiful souls, and he had never felt so close to them as he had half a mile above New York. (And wasn't _that_ an Alanis Morissette song?) Steve better be prepared to receive his investment back double.

After all, Sam's not just the seventh Captain America, he's the _first_ Falcon too.

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from [Ulyssess](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174659) by Tennyson
> 
> The Bible verses referenced are:
> 
> [Job 31:6](http://biblehub.com/job/31-6.htm)  
> [The Parable of the Talents](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A14-30&version=NASB) (I conflated this with the Parable of the Two Sons, but I figured Sam might make the same mistake?)  
> [Hosea 12:3](http://biblehub.com/hosea/12-3.htm)


End file.
